Meet Derek “DC” Talib |Director |Screenwriter| Actor| and Jose W. Byers | Actor| |Producer|

We had the good fortune of connecting with Derek “DC” Talib and Jose W. Byers and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Derek and Jose, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
First of all thank you for taking the time to interview us. We have always been a team and started this journey of creating our own film company together. I was more of the screenwriter where Jose was more of an actor. Derek approached me about a story he wrote in college called Kane and Lawless. The story sounded so good I thought he should revisit it and we should try and make it ourselves. Neither Jose or I knew anything about how to make a movie, but had the drive to learn everything we would need too. It was about that time that I (Jose) got a call from my agent at the time about an audition for Captain America the Winter Soldier. I asked Derek if he would also like to audition and he said yes. God must have been with us because we both got cast in the film as preferred extras, meaning we got to work directly with the main cast. Jose was cast as a Strike Force Agent and worked with the likes of Robert Redford, Scarlett Johansson and Sebastian Stan. Derek was cast as a Shield Agent and worked with Chris Evans, Frank Grillo, and Anthony Mackie. The Russo Brothers ran a great set and we learned a lot and asked questions of everyone we could. Being extras I doubt they remember us, but we remember every second. The big take away advice we got was from Joe and Anthony Russo who said, would you rather be the one waiting on the phone to ring for a job or be the one hiring for the job. To gain experience we both worked on a production of a web series that was entitled “A Child called Myracle” . Derek rewrote the entire script for the Executive Producer Niccole Bowels. She then asked both of us to direct the production, so we did about three episodes. Niccole gave us our first paid job and believed in us to bring her vision to life. During that production we were driving home at 3.am in the morning from Cleveland and thought we should be doing this since it came so natural to us and we loved it so much. So Derek jumped into immediately finishing the script for St. Gabriel and I set out to find the crew that could make it. Jose found Cinematographer Andrew Thames and Jordan Greytek to do the sound as well as other local talented crew, but as luck would have it as we scheduled shoot days our crew got called away on another assignment forcing us to find a new one. We found a talented artist in Cincinnati and his right hand woman in Fred Mckinstry and Danielle Williams to step in and be our starting crew. We tell you this because God works in ways to get things done we don’t understand. Due to the fact our first crew could not film and we had to get a 2nd crew Derek wanted to test out that crew and see how they worked so he wrote a short called Dark Iris for them to shoot on a weekend. Derek is a gifted screenwriter, but he wrote this short in 30 minutes on his lunch and we shot it that weekend. It not only was a success it was a multiple award winning short, which led us to get funded by Executive Producer David Gwinn to write our first feature film Dark Iris which is in 15 countries now and counting. From there we have been developing projects and are in fact in the process of opening our own opportunity zone film business for film. Many times opportunity zones are for real estate. Derek’s brother Allan has been in the business world for over 40 years and presented us with the funding model for film that has not been done before, coupling tax incentive programs with a way to help investors in our projects recoup some of their capital gains. The business of making movies is just that, “a business”. Most people do not understand the amount of work it takes to make a feature film. As our company i71movies grew we knew we would need to expand our team and brought on Allan Talib as a business development manager and then Rebekah Hart Franklin as one of our producers, both now have part ownership in i71Movies. We are working with a funding group and team in Springfield Ohio and want to expand filmmaking in Ohio. We have had many offers to take our business out of Ohio, but are trying to establish a strong presence for this multibillion dollar industry here. They had some form of an Ohio film festival in Columbus that was sponsored yet there were hardly any Ohio filmmakers in it. Things like that do not move the needle. It makes people feel good, but we know most of the people doing films here in Ohio and it is a close nit community and many of them are not getting help or funding to complete their projects. It is our goal to change that narrative. Ohio sometimes is caught putting their funding or energy into things that don’t bear fruit. We know several filmmakers that are doing great work and having their work seen and distributed nationally and internationally, but they don’t really get the support they need here at home and have to get funding and recognition elsewhere. We have run into that ourselves and just keep our head down and keep going. We have some people that recognize what we are trying to do and have given us the support they can, but they can only do so much. We are a diversity owned business that works with other diverse artist and wounded veterans in completing our projects. It is this passion that drives us in creating our studio in Springfield Ohio and creating opportunities for developing artists. We are working with a producer from L.A right now that is marketing one of our lates projects for us and we expect to have a huge 2024.

What should our readers know about your business?
There are several production companies here in and around Ohio that try to work in independent film each with different levels of success. We started our business i71Movies with the goal to make Ohio the Hollywood of the Midwest. So many movies are shot in California and New York and now Atlanta that it was our thought that there are so many stories and places right here in our backyard to film and we want to bring that multibillion dollar business here to Ohio. What has been happening is that productions come to Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus and film then go back to their studios across the country to finish. The infrastructure here in Ohio was said to not be strong enough to support television and movie productions, yet the major studios come here to film then leave, so that is contradictory to what is really going on. Ohio has the infrastructure, but does not have the investment. We can give you several examples of investment dollars going to arts that yield no return. On our last production we employed over 41 crew and actors on a project and received zero help or funding from any investment dollars in or around Ohio. We in fact had to find investment dollars from outside the state. Ohio is behind in what the film industry is becoming and what it can be right here. With the influx of streaming and so many platforms looking for content this is a great time to be an independent film company. What i71movies is doing that is different is that we are using a opportunity zone model to protect investment into our projects as well as help our investors by the strong tax incentive programs that come with Opportunity zone funding. Many OZ funds are for real estate, but we have tailored our for film and have been getting some good response from investors looking to put their funds into projects towards the end of the year. This has been nothing short of hard work and determination to get all this in place, but with the team we have assembled we are happy with the results thus far and how many angel investors and businesses are inquiring about this structure and wanting to put their funds into film projects. We had to learn everything and especially how to make money in the film market and there are several ways to recoup investment dollars and also ways to utilize sponsorship to make a project come alive. We have a strong faith and believe in what we are doing and are not shaken in our resolve.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I like Amish country and a slow subtle pace, with that home cooking, where Derek loves the state parks like Mohican state park to get out in nature. We both enjoy the Arena district for the shops, and the Columbus zoo. I go a few times a year to the zoo with my wife and Jose has gone multiple times with his girlfriend. There are so many places to take a person in Columbus it is really up to the mood of the night. Several good places to eat and enjoy each others company.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Our shout out section would be long because so many have helped us in so many ways Stephanie Talib, Dawn Marie Hughes, Tim Novotny, Kevin Winstead, Tom Basso, Kris Hubner, Mary Petty, Phyliss Spielman, Sophia Rumora, Andrew Thames, Jordan Greytek, Fred Mckinstry, Danielle Williams, Allan Talib, Rebekah Hart Franklin, John Daugherty, Todd and Tonya Reed, Durb Morrison, Suzanne Turgeon, Lana Reed, Val and Clarence Caldwell, Doug Plank, Scott Krizner, Brian Robertson and family, Brian Bowman, Brian and Alicia Ellis, , Melissa Lewis, Jammie Miller, Alex Clark, Mike Vitovich, Marylee Osborne, Ken and Ashley Sledge, Mick Manhattan, Nicchole Bowels, David Gwinn, Mike and Carol Santone, Ray Chesky, Dewey Joseph Johnson, The entire cast of Dark Iris and St. Gabriel and Keli Price. All these people have believed in us worked long hours for us, loved us supported us, acted for us, advised us, invested in us, inspired us, picked us up or kicked us in the butt.

Website: https://www.i71movies.com/

Instagram: dc_i71media or https://www.instagram.com/jbyers78/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-talib-507a793/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dtalib43?lang=en and https://twitter.com/josewbyers

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1LwNsCfwmumiANS1Aw27sw

Image Credits
All owned by us i71Movies